People of the Global Majority

Minority stress is a concept developed to explain the psychological and emotional distress experienced by stigmatised minority groups and has been widely used to describe the psychological toll of racism.

While the concept of minority stress has shed light on the psychological experiences of racism, it inadvertently conflicts with the root cause of racism itself. Racism is not an issue because Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) are a minority; it is an issue because the ideology of white supremacy persists and continues to legitimise violence and oppression toward BIPOCs.

People of the Global Majority

The truth is, BIPOCs are a global majority. Approximately 85% of the global population are Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour, this includes biracial and multiracial people. Racism exists because it serves a vicious purpose—granting power, privilege, and financial profit to certain individuals and groups, predominantly white people, at the expense of other people’s marginalisation and suffering. This system remains intact not because BIPOCs are a numerical minority but because racism is deeply embedded, upheld, and made useful to those in power. We all benefit from this system of power at some level.

Debunking the Minority Myth

This is why the term minority stress fails to adequately describe the psychological experience of racism. It perpetuates the white supremacy narrative reinforcing an internalised sense of inferiority among BIPOCs. The minority framing not only encourages the internalisation of racial inferiority but also centres white ideologies, values, and cultures as normative and more desirable, further silencing resistance against the status quo of power and privilege.

Imagine if BIPOCs were raised to recognise that they were People of the Global Majority —how would that empower the resistance against the status quo of power and privilege? What would that mean in terms of healing from racism?

For these reasons, I propose using the terms race-based stress or race-based traumatic stress instead of minority stress and the term People of the Global Majority to debunk the minority myth. These alternatives more accurately reflect the unique distress that BIPOCs experience as a result of racism and injustice on macro, meso, and micro levels. Unlike minority stress, these terms do not position BIPOCs as inferior but instead acknowledge the systemic and structural nature of racism.